Unprotected Childhood
by ClearEyes
Summary: "Why didn't you protect me? Why did my childhood end so fast? Where were you?" The girl pleaded silently as she watched the silent full moon up in the sky and she hoped with all her might that the Man in the Moon might hear her pleas. Original Character, no pairings. ONE-SHOT! R&R.


**Hello everyone! I'm back after a long needed break with a one-shot considering one possibility that crossed my ming a few days ago: what happened to those kids with troubled childhood that turned out to be troubled teenagers? How would those teenagers would react upon watching a movie in which four, then five, guardians were supposed to protect the childhood of the children (duh) in the world knowing that somehow they weren't protected by them? So, this is what it turned out to be. Enjoy! [A/N: Reference to "Living" at the bottom]**

* * *

"Why didn't you protect me? Why didn't you protect my childhood?" A lonely teenager whispered looking at the fool moon. She hoped it would listen, she hoped it would be real. She saw a movie about the guardians of childhood, and she couldn't help the resentment that she felt towards them. She knew deep down that they weren't real, but she tried her hardest to believe they were. She wanted to feel them real. She needed them; she needed to know she was not alone. After an especially hard night, full of nightmares, she was out on her porch just looking at the moon when she thought of speaking to it. She needed someone to talk to, and in her mind the moon would be the best listener.

Her nightmares weren't precisely nightmares, they were memories. Her deepest secrets and fears, the worst part of her life, she lived it all over again. She felt again like a frightened seven year old down girl, clinging to her mother's arm while they watched the black coffin with his dad inside sink into the ground. She had tears in her eyes, both in the memory and in her face while she recalled it. His dad had died in a car accident and her mother was never the same. She was an only child, so when her mom couldn't go home because she had to work extra hard to get money into the house, the girl was left alone in the house. She learned to cook, to wash the dishes, the clothes… she became responsible for the chores of the house. She felt lonely most of the time, because she had almost to none friends. In that moment her best friends was away on vacation in some far away beach.

"If you are supposed to protect the children of the world, why did my childhood end so fast?" she asked, feeling utterly alone and hopeless. She hated feeling all frightened, but she couldn't help it. She felt vulnerable, after reliving again the memories she had buried deep inside her mind. Then she wondered if it was possible that the Tooth Fairy had sent that memory for her to remember something. _It's impossible; they aren't real. As much as I wish they were, they aren't;_ she thought before going back to bed trying to get some sleep and rest.

Meanwhile, unbeknown to her, the Man in the Moon had heard her pleas. Even when he was silent and a perfect listener, it was rare when he thought some particular child needed some extra help. He debated himself and was torn between helping the young lady or not. Truth was she was not a child anymore; he didn't need to protect her. But if he failed her in the past, he owned it to her in some way. With so many children in the world, it wasn't surprising that a few children in the most bizarre situations would be missed by the guardians, because their light was the hardest to see. Those children most of the time lacked of confidence, and if one does not believe in him or herself, how could she believe in anything? He still felt in debt with the girl, so he decided to discuss the matter with the guardians.

* * *

That night North was on his workshop getting the last gifts ready for Christmas. He liked to have all the toys finished at least two weeks early to be able to do checkups on the lists, the reindeer, the sleigh and all those safety details that needed to be taken care of. He was walking by the globe room when he saw the moon, shinning brighter that the usual and that was calling him. "Are you serious, Man in the Moon? It's almost Christmas! What time is it for you to be calling?" North asked the moon and listened to the silent answer only he could hear. "Fine, all gather them up; but this better be important," North told him before turning on the signal all the guardians were familiar with: the northern lights.

Bunnymund was on his warren taking a rest after a day of gardening. He had to keep his warren beautiful and his plants healthy if he wanted them ready for Easter. Especially because it was winter and because Jack was fond of filling his place with fluffy white snow, he had to take extra care of his flowers, because they could not resist weathers too extreme; whether too cold or too hot; as he was eating a carrot and about to take a nap, he saw the northern lights; that could only mean one thing: danger. "Are you kidding me?!" he asked to no one in particular, but managed to startle some of the eggs that were passing by him. He tapped on the ground three times and jumped into the hole that opened in the ground, running as fast as he could to reach the pole. He arrived in a place way nearer than the last time, so that his paws wouldn't freeze on the way to the workshop. He was surprised that North had called him so close to Christmas, and he remembered when they fought Pitch near Easter; apparently, he did called the guardians near his holiday. That must have meant something big was up, so he hurried over to the gigantic workshop. He arrived to see North pacing the ground rapidly, obviously stressed out of having to deal with the meeting so close to Christmas. Bunny couldn't help the grin that formed on his lips. He quickly erased it and went over to North.

Tooth was on field work that night. After the battle with Pitch, she decided it was fun to collect the teeth herself, and she created an efficient system in which she could communicate with his fairies while she was out, and she had left clear instructions in the palace for baby tooth, which was the fairy in charge that night. She had just left a kid's home with a white canine on her hand. The kid couldn't have been older than ten years old; he had blonde hair and smiled in his sleep. Tooth smiled when she saw the memory of that particular teeth; the boy had been playing soccer with his friends, when he received quite a hard hit with the ball on his face causing the teeth to fall off. He didn't even notice until someone pointed to the ground and he found the teeth there. She was heading to another house before going back to the palace when she saw the northern lights. She gasped and commanded her wings to move as fast as they could as she went over to North's workshop. She sent a fairy to tell baby tooth she was going to return later to the palace, that she was left in charge as long as she was absent. The cold didn't help her fly any faster, but her worry made her keep flying. What could be so wrong that North had to summon the guardians so close to his holiday? Had Pitch returned? Was there an even bigger threat to the children? She arrived and flew through a window directly into the globe room. There was Bunny waiting with North, both looking impatient.

Sandy had just finished delivering dreams into a town where sun rise was already breaking. He decided he wanted to get some sleep himself, and he would have if not for the northern lights he saw in the remains of the night sky. He sighed while he said goodbye, mentally of course, to the possibility of having a nice nap while he created his makeshift airplane made of sand and flew to the North Pole. He was greeted by the guardians, who were waiting expectantly. The only one missing was Jack, and they knew he wouldn't take long. At least they hoped so.

Jack was with Jamie and his friends having an amazing snowball fight. Every kid was aiming to Jack, and he just floated around to avoid getting hit, not too high because he still wanted to be kind of fair to the kids. The one kid to hit him would be praised by Jack, even when he didn't know what he would give that child. Still, he was distracted when he thought he saw something in the sky. He told the children to go on without him and he hovered higher in the sky to get a better view. When he realized he was seeing the northern lights his stomach fell hard all the way to the ground. He had been thought by North that when there was some kind of emergency meeting or such he would turn on the northern lights. Jack could not possibly imagine what would lead to North summoning them up so suddenly. He flew down to Jamie and told him he had to leave, that North was calling him. The kid pouted, but he understood. Jack promised to be back and to finish the snowball fight when he returned. He smiled at the child, trying hard to hide the worry he was feeling and he let the wind carry him towards the North Pole. He flew through one of the windows and figured he was the last one to arrive when he saw the other four. He gulped. That was the first time he had been summoned as a guardian, which felt a lot heavier than being tossed by Yetis into a magic portal because it was his responsibility. Jack being a child himself had trouble assuming that concept.

"Now that we are all here, tell us North, why did you summon us?" Bunny asked when Jack placed himself next to Sandy in the globe room.

"I called you all because the Man in the Moon asked so; he hasn't even told me the problem yet," North admitted and looked up at the moon, waiting for an answer. Then, there, in the moonlight shimmered and glimmered an image. It was a teenage girl, and she appeared to be the same age Jack had when he died; around seventeen or something like that. They could see her in her bed, crying herself to sleep. All around her they could also see fearlings, but they weren't Pitch's. They had the form of big shadows that tried to devour the frame of the girl; they were her own darkest fears, those she knew not how to get rid of them. "Hmm… I see," North said in reply to something the Man in the Moon told him; he sighed and turned to the guardians. "The Man in the Moon is scolding me; not only me, us. Maybe not you, Jack, you are the newest member after all, but the rest of us yes. He says we have failed to protect that child over there, and that we owe her," he explained and everyone looked at him wide eyed, not quite believing it.

"So, you're saying that the Man in the Moon told you to summon us here, only weeks before Christmas, to scold us?" Tooth tried to understand and wrap her mind around that idea. It had been so long since she had been scolded by someone, that it felt weird and in a way she also felt ashamed.

"How have we failed her?" Bunny asked, clearly upset by the statement. But he wasn't angry at the Man in the Moon, not even at the other guardians. He felt upset and angry at himself for not doing a good job.

"She had a rough childhood. Her dad died when she was very little, and her mother pushed her away. The child… well, let's just say she had to become an adult earlier than expected, and even when we aren't responsible of her family affairs, we should have tried to maintain what little childhood was left of her; above all, the hope and wonder of a child, her dreams for the future and the good memories of her life with her dad when he was still alive. Now she's haunted by everything she could but didn't have," North explained and everyone looked down in guilt. Jack felt a little out of place and he turned to look at the girl, who was sobbing quietly. He watched as her greater fears tried to take control over her, and he knew it was no good. She was having nightmares, and if she ever got consumed by the darkness inside of her, she would never be free again. They needed to do something now. He looked back at the guardians who just kept their ashamed looks and he scowled at them.

"So what now?" he said startling the guardians. Jack had an angry glare that made everyone, even Bunny, flinch.

"There's nothing we can do, we've failed," Tooth whispered sadly, fighting back the tears. She didn't feel she had the right to be called a guardian.

"Just like that, are you going to give up that easily?" Jack retorted. "As far as I'm concerned she is still a child and she is still under our protection. We should not only worry about protecting childhood, if when the children become adults they will forget about everything we tried to protect. We also are responsible of protecting the inner child that even adults have, don't you think? We should keep their childhood very alive in the back of their minds, shouldn't we?" he asked, and everyone listened to him intently and looked at him hopefully. "So what if we failed in the past? We can't turn back in time, but we can help her _now_" Jack explained and everyone saw truth in his words. For a reckless and irresponsible child/spirit/guardian, he was right. He surprised the guardians with his words of wisdom Jack didn't even know he possessed, and they all realized why the Man in the Moon had chosen him.

"Jack's right," North's loud voice rumbled through the room. "We can't dwell in the past right now, we need to help that girl tonight. Any ideas?" he said. Everyone's gaze jerked up and their eyes filled with determination. Jack smirked.

"Oh, I have an idea," the white haired spirit said and rounded up the guardians to tell them of his plan.

* * *

"Go away, go away, go away," the girl muttered while she hugged her knees. She was under the covers of her bed trying to ignore the voices in her head telling her everything she dreaded to hear. It might have been true or it might have been not, but she wasn't thinking straight. She just wanted the voices to stop, to leave her alone. She was starting to believe that what they said was true, she could feel her faith crumble and she didn't like the feeling. She felt so hopeless and so alone. She was trembling uncontrollably and the tears wouldn't stop flowing.

Suddenly she felt a cold, yet kind, wind flowing around her and in her room. She uncovered herself and looked around, yet she saw nothing. She looked at the window, and it was closed; she shuddered thinking it might have been a ghost or something. Her trembling hadn't stopped, if anything, it had only gotten worse. Then, her window started to freeze. A flowered patterned of frost appeared in the glass and a happy face was drawn there by an invisible hand. She remembered the movie she saw and the scene where Jack Frost –her favorite character, by the way –drew something similar on the kid's window to get him to believe again. "No way," she muttered to herself and looked around. She still saw nothing. "It must be my imagination," she was about try and go to sleep again when he felt something in her hand. He looked at it and she recognized the texture of some kind of powder –sand –that she was sure wasn't there before.

On her window that was completely covered in frost by then, she saw the words _Only if you believe it is,_ as if written by very thick and fat fingers. She didn't get the meaning at first, but soon she realized that it had replied to her previous comment. She gasped and moved away, almost falling when she tripped with her own feet.

_Don't be afraid,_ were the next words to appear on the window. It was clearly feminine hand writing, done by very thin fingers. _We're here to help._ She gasped again because she actually saw the words being written by the same invisible hand. Tears welled up in her eyes and her hands flew to cover her mouth.

"You're real;" she muttered and, as if a veil that was covering her eyes had been removed, she could see in front of them five magical being. She almost fainted when she realized who they were and she wanted to pinch herself, trying to prove it wasn't a dream.

"The guardians of childhood," Bunnymund introduced, making a wide movement with his paw to signal all five of them, "at your service." Her mouth opened wide as she was trying to process everything. She felt suddenly light headed and had to seek support on her desk, but she aimed wrong and when she leaned in with all her weight she fell.

She expected to feel the ground, but she didn't. She looked up to see the one and only Jack Frost, who was holding her in place. "Easy there," he told her. He prevented her fall, she told herself to avoid blushing but not quite managing it. If he hadn't been there to support her, her legs would have given away. She pushed herself away from him a swift motion, feeling embarrassed. Her face grew hot with the blush she expected to avoid. The guardians chuckled a bit. She couldn't believe it, it was all too unreal.

"W-w-what…? H-h-how…?" she started to ask, but she couldn't seem to be able to get any coherent phrase out of her mouth. Her knees fell weak and she thought they wouldn't support her.

"We came here to apologize," the biggest of them all said: North. The teen stayed silent, not knowing if she heard well.

"We didn't protect you as we should have, and we are sorry," the Tooth fairy told her.

"And we are, also, to promise you that from now on you won't be alone anymore. We will always be there to protect your inner child, so you can rest assured," Jack added.

The girl was now gaping like a fish out of the water. Was it even possible that that was happening? Was it even possible they were in her room telling her all that stuff? They didn't seem to be expecting an answer though. Soon, Sandy flashed her with some sand and she was fast asleep, an image of the guardians formed in sand appeared above her head and smiled formed on her lips. Again, the one to catch her before she hit the ground was Jack, and he tucked her in her bed. The guardians smiled. They knew it would all seem like a dream to her, but at least her faith would be restored. They knew that because they hadn't finished the plan.

North left in her nightstand a small box wrapped with pink paper and the guardians retreated. They didn't even to the North Pole together because the emergency had passed. They each went their different ways feeling like they had bonded more as guardians, friends and family.

* * *

The next morning the girl woke up feeling strangely relieved and happy. Last night appeared foggy to her, but she knew she had had a great dream full of adventures, her first nice dream in years. She smiled and went to take a shower; for the first time in ages, almost since her father had died, she felt like singing. And so, she sang as loud as she could in the shower with no one to bother her. She finished and felt refreshed when she got out. She dresses and just when she was combing her hair did she noticed the small wrapped box on her nightstand. She didn't remember putting anything there, and she highly doubted her mother would give her something, so she reached for it and opened it.

She gasped in surprise and her eyes opened wide at the sight. In her hands was a snow globe, with five small figurines inside of it. There was a small golden figurine waving at her and smiling kindly, there was a tall bunny with colorful painted eggs in a basket he held in his arm, there was a hummingbird female creature with hanging from the top of the snow globe, making it look like she was flying around the place in an agitated motion, there was a large man smiling warmly at her and she couldn't help but remember her father. And last, but not least, she repaired in the white haired boy smiling smugly in her direction with a snowball in his hand. She shook the small snow globe slowly, fearing that it might break if she did it too hard, and inside of the globe fake snow started to fall. Then, the figurines appeared to take life on their own, and the girl saw how Jack threw his snowball at Bunny, who made one of his own and threw it at Jack who ducked and it hit North. North then made a big, big snowball and threw it at anyone in range, everyone ducked except for the Tooth Fairy who was soon covered in the white fluffy stuff. She then made a snowball and threw it a Sandy and they started to have a big, fun snowball fight.

When the fake snowflakes stopped falling inside the globe, the image faded and the figurines returned to their original positions. The girls couldn't help but laugh and stared in awe as she read the legend in the base of the globe: _Never stop believing. We are always here._

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**So, what did you think about this? Did you like it? Please let me know by leaving a review!**

**And so, straight to the point, I'm already working on the sequel to "Living" that I might call "Forgotten". Next week I start my partial exams, but don't worry. I promise you that I'll upload the first chapter to the sequel at much next friday. It's a promise and it's a commitment. If I don't... well... let's just say you'll get very angry at me and I don't really want that. SO for my own good, my own reputation, and you my loyal followers I AM UPLOADING NE** **WEEK!**

**I'm also working on a request, and I'm also surely to upload it next week. If I don't then you can be creative and hurt me if you want, but let's hope it doesn't get to that.**

**THANK YOU FOR READING!**

**This is me, ClearEyes, signing off for today.**


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